Prosecutors Seek to Reverse Delay in Olson’s Trial

Prosecutors in the case of alleged Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson said Wednesday they plan to ask a California appeals court to reconsider its decision this week to delay her conspiracy trial until September.

Deputy Dist. Attys. Michael Latin and Eleanor Hunter said they will try to persuade the 2nd District Court of Appeal on June 22 that a four-month delay granted the defense is unwarranted.

In the meantime, Hunter and Latin said they will ask the appeals panel to clarify whether its ruling also prohibits Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler from proceeding with pretrial motions in the case. Olson, 54, is charged with conspiring to kill two Los Angeles police officers in 1975.

The two prosecutors also want Fidler to allow them to examine three elderly witnesses during the delay. The three, all in their 70s and 80s, were witnesses to the robbery of a bank in Carmichael in 1975 in which a female customer was shot and killed.

Authorities believe the robbery, which remains unsolved, was one of several crimes committed by the SLA, a revolutionary group best known for the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst. The testimony is relevant to Olson’s trial because the judge has ruled that the entire history of the SLA can be introduced.

Hunter and Latin say the three women are ill and might not be able to survive until they are called to testify during Olson’s trial.

Fidler responded that he would not proceed with any motions in the case, including the issue of whether to accept the women’s testimony, unless the appeals court instructs him that he can.

“I would not be comfortable with any evidentiary matter unless I know the court of appeals had no objection,” said Fidler, before setting a May 18 status hearing in the case.

Olson is accused of trying to kill LAPD Officer John Hall and former LAPD Officer James Bryan by placing a bomb under two LAPD squad cars while a member of the revolutionary group. The bombs did not detonate.

She was arrested in St. Paul, Minn., in June of 1999 after more than two decades in hiding.

Her attorneys, Shawn Chapman and Tony Serra, turned to the appeals court on Monday after Fidler refused to grant a fifth continuance in the trial. He had set evidentiary hearings to begin on April 30, with jury selection to follow. He issued a nine-day stay to give the defense time to appeal his decision.

The two defense attorneys insisted that they could not adequately defend Olson, who is facing a possible life sentence, without more time to prepare.

They told Fidler, and the appeals court, that they had been overwhelmed by 8,000 pages of evidence turned over by the prosecution in the past eight weeks.

Chapman also indicated Wednesday that she may ask the court for yet another delay if misdemeanor charges filed last week against her and Serra by the city attorney’s office aren’t dropped.

Chapman and Serra were both charged on May 3 with violating state law by including the address and phone numbers of two alleged victims, Hall and Bryan, in a filing. The filing was posted on Olson’s Web site operated by her supporters in St. Paul.

Chapman told Fidler Wednesday she can’t properly question Hall and Bryan on behalf of Olson while the criminal charges against her are pending. Chapman said she believes the charges were filed to harm Olson’s right to a fair trial.

“I was appalled to find out I had been charged with a crime,” Chapman said. “The timing seemed very suspicious to me.”

Hunter and Latin denied in court having anything to do with the decision to file charges. Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said her office had nothing to do with the charges.

“Why would we do this?” she said. “We were ready to go to trial.”